🔗 Share this article

What can you boost a excellent experienced side that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two games?

Recruit a raft of former pro players that have played at the elite level of club football and international football as you aim for additional silverware.

One Manchester team boasts an non-professional vets team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their active lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in south the city and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Tier.

The roster this season includes 9 former top-flight players, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League games.

This star-studded team also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.

The squad include one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former top-flight players have claimed fifteen major honors and moved for combined transfer sums of about £123m.

Famous Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this season through close friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.

Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.

"After that he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?

"Those fans who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back.

"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.

"The movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."

'Surreal Feeling

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in over two hundred top-flight matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Also Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd English caps.

"Our side held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"We really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a